Elisa
by Lady Domino
Summary: During the final battle time stops seconds before Bellatrix's death, and she is offered a terrible choice. Will she betray her lord for the chance of life, or die for him?


Disclaimer – Harry potter, not mine. Words in bold belong to dear old JK

A/N – so now we are faced with the ultimate challenge. I've inserted a (nearly) all powerful character into the Harry potter universe, and naturally it strays dangerously near Mary Sue territory. I would like to stress that I tried very hard to stop Mary Sue-ness (note lack of glossy black/gold hair, silver/gold eyes, extensive description of fantastic figure, omniscient, being Harry potter's lover). If anyone gets any ideas what Elisa could be let me know. As far as I'm concerned, she's not Mary Sue. She's an enigma.

And this was just a little one-shot to explore the character of Bellatrix a little more. She is easily my favourite Harry potter character and I thought her death was a bit sudden, so now she gets a nice time to contemplate it…

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Elisa

"**What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunted Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly's curses danced around her. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"**

"**You-wll-never-touch-our-children-again!" screamed Mrs Weasley.**

**Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backwards through the veil, and suddenly-**

Time stopped.

Bellatrix Lestrange's laughter died in her throat at the sudden, complete silence. She was frozen, all except her head. It wasn't simply as if she couldn't move her body: she didn't feel that she had a body at all. In front of her the red-haired woman was still as a statue, face contorted, wand arm thrust in front of her.

"My Lord?" Bellatrix whispered. Who else but he could have managed such an impossible piece of magic? When there was no answer she craned her head around, and was horrified to see that he stood as stock still as the rest of the plateau, his robes caught in mid-whirl like a dancer's skirts.

And then, winding through the statues, a small figure, child-sized and delicate. Bellatrix stared as the figure emerged from the frozen fighters to stand in front of her. A girl, dressed in the Hogwarts uniform, socks different lengths, with one reaching above her knee and the other hovering around the mid-calf. She was unhurt, unruffled, strangely mirror calm in this unmoving battlefield.

"Who are you?" Bellatrix demanded angrily. The girl cocked her head to the side, an amused expression on her face.

"Elisa. You're Bellatrix Lestrange." It wasn't question. Bellatrix swallowed her fury and attempted a level tone of voice.

"Did you do this, girl?"

"Yes. But I'm not a girl. I only look like this because I didn't want to draw attention to myself." She glanced around and then said conversationally, "they put me in Ravenclaw you know. I think I'd have made a good Slytherin, personally. You were in Slytherin, weren't you?"

"Yes," said Bellatrix irritably. "How did you do this? You've… cast a spell of some kind." The girl laughed.

"Call it what it is. I've stopped time. Not just this little scene but real time. The world is currently hanging in suspension. Six billion incipient moments, waiting to break."

"That's not possible!" Bellatrix snarled. "Not even the Dark Lord…"

"Ah yes, your Dark Lord," Elisa said, showing her teeth. "That's the reason I stopped time you know. And if you're wondering how I did it, it's with this." She held out her hand, and Bellatrix could see something which looked like a small pocket watch in it.

"A watch?"

"You use an hourglass to turn back time. This is, shall we say, a little more advanced."

"It is not possible," Bellatrix said with conviction. "Some sort of trick…"

"_Not possible_?" Elisa mocked. "Forgive me, but _how the hell _would you know?" She gestured around them at the other fighters. "Do you think these people will tell their children tomorrow how they saw time stopped? Do you think they will know?"

"Then what are you?" Bellatrix cried desperately. "You said this was not your true form; what are you and what do you want with me?"

"I am a concept beyond your limited imagination," Elisa said calmly. "As to what I want with you…I propose a deal."

"What sort of deal?" Bellatrix asked suspiciously.

"Simple," Elisa replied. "I can't kill your Lord Voldemort on my own. And now that Harry Potter's dead, there's no one else who can. So… I want you to help me destroy him." Bellatrix snorted with laughter.

"Never! You're mad honey, whatever else you are!" Elisa's expression did not change, but she walked up to stand in front of Bellatrix.

"Look down, Bellatrix," Elisa murmured. Bellatrix lowered her gaze, and fought a scream. There was no mistaking the bolt of green light, frozen in the air, only inches from her chest. The colour reminded Bellatrix slightly of the eyes of a dead boy, as he'd stood there in the firelight, their emerald depths hovering on the brink of the void. Elisa's smile widened, and her voice sounded like the purr of a cat wrapping itself around a bowl of cream. "You see this is where it gets interesting. I have the power to save you. It is only by my intervention that you will live."

Desperately Bellatrix's mind raced. Perhaps some spell… she couldn't Apparate but maybe she could dive to the left…

"Forget it," Elisa said, as though she'd read her mind. "There wouldn't be time, and any spells you try now won't work. Your wand's frozen in time, remember?"

"So," Bellatrix said quietly. "You'll save me if I agree to betray my Lord." Elisa gave a trill of pleasure.

"Pretty much!" She paused, and a wicked expression crept into her brown eyes. "This is rather boring, isn't it? Dialogue – back and forth, me and you. Let's spice it up a little by making it a threesome, shall we?" Without waiting for an answer she skipped away, to the tall figure in black. Bellatrix felt a wave of fear, and it was just as well she was stopped in time, because otherwise her heart would have made a flying leap from her mouth.

"No…" she said quietly, licking her dry lips. Elisa ignored the plea, and instead lifted her pocket watch up to Voldemort's head and clicked a little button. Instantly his head was animated, from the neck up.

"-_dava_!" he screamed, finishing the curse he had been halted in the middle of. The answering silence had the same effect on him as it had on Bellatrix, and for a second it seemed he was frozen again, as he didn't move at all. "Very clever," he said eventually. "Some sort of illusory spell? And I can't seem to find its boundaries." His voice was lightly amused, but there was an underlying strain, a deep frustration. "To whom do I have the pleasure of addressing when I call on its maker?"

Elisa bounded in front of him, school-girl chripy.

"That'd be me," she said proudly. "And it's not a spell. I stopped time."

"Really?" Voldemort said evenly. "Well, my dear, if you would be so kind to restart time I-" She interrupted him with a snort.

"Since when do you ask politely? You must have already worked out you can't break it. Clever boy." Voldemort still had his back to Bellatrix, so she couldn't see his face. Instead she called to him.

"My Lord!" He turned to face her, his face calm, no doubt through supreme effort.

"Ah, Bellatrix. You too seem to have stumbled into this dream."

"I just said it's real!" Elisa pouted. In an instant she was smiling again. "But you look uncomfortable craning your neck like that! If I just –" She stepped forward, wrapped her arms carefully around Voldemort's waist, and then lifted him as if he were a cardboard cut out, turned around, and gently put him down again. He rocked a little on his stiff feet, but now he was facing Bellatrix.

"Thank you," he said tonelessly, his face closed. Elisa laughed and poked his shoulder.

"I can feel you almost trembling with rage. You're a good actor."

"Thank you," he repeated, still without emotion. "I have never thought it wise to provoke someone with power that infinitely transcends my own." Elisa trilled again with pleasure and clapped her hands.

"Very polite! But now we come to our main problem. Let me fill you in. If you care to see here…" She trotted around to Bellatrix again and indicated the death spell which hovered threateningly in front of her. "This is an _Avada Kadava _curse, guaranteed to kill Bellatrix the instant I restart time." Voldemort's expression did not change, but Bellatrix fancied that his eyes darkened slightly. Or was that her own wishful imagination? "Now," Elisa continued, "I offered to move Bellatrix out of harm's way, but on one condition." She turned to face Voldemort confrontationally. "Namely that she would assist me in killing you." Bellatrix expected a scream of anger, a furious tirade. Instead Voldemort snorted in an amused fashion.

"_You _need help?" Elisa shrugged.

"Just because I can stop time doesn't mean I can kill. Yes, I do." Voldemort laughed, a short sharp laugh, snapped off quickly.

"Even if she does agree, it won't change anything. I have eliminated the only threat there ever was to me. Harry Potter is dead. I have triumphed."

"Nonetheless it may interest you to know that Bellatrix gallantly refused," Elisa said. "So now I suppose I'll just restart time." She reached for her watch, but Bellatrix's mouth moved of its own accord.

"Stop!" Elisa raised her young head.

"Why?" Bellatrix licked her dry lips again. Even though she couldn't feel her body she was sure her heart was pounding.

"I… don't want to die."

"Bella…" Voldemort said in a warning tone. She shot him a desperate look.

"My Lord I could not possibly hurt you!"

"Betray me and you can never return," he threatened. A shiver passed down her throat from her head, but didn't transmit to the rest of her body.

"Death is the point of no return," she whispered.

"You went to Azkaban for me," he said softly, his voice strangely sad.

"And now I must die for you to?" she suddenly screamed. "What of my life, my lord? I've already lost thirteen years!"

"Bella," he said, again in that terrible soft tone. Something hardened in her. He was so weak, frozen there like the rest of them! As powerless as she was. But he wasn't the one facing imminent death!

"You, Elisa," she said, her voice shaking. "I want to live. Please." The girl took a step closer to her.

"I'll need an unbreakable vow, you understand." Bellatrix trembled all the more. She couldn't bear to meet Voldemort's eyes, to look at him at all.

"Yes," she said. Elisa brought her watch right next to Bellatrix's wandless left hand and clicked the button again. Instantly life return to the hand; Bellatrix could move the fingers, could feel them throbbing in a pins and needles sort of way. Elisa entwined her own small hand with it.

"Say the words," she hissed. "Promise to fight against him." It was betrayal. Ultimate betrayal. But it was that or death. Death after a life already curtailed for the lord who could not save her.

"I swear to fight against the Dark Lord if you save my life," she said, her voice shaky with fear. Voldemort expelled his held breath in an angry hiss as the tongue of flame writhed around their interlocked fingers. Elisa smiled proudly and stepped back.

"Burn in hell," Voldemort whispered softly. "You'll be begging to do that when I'm through with you, Bella."

"Now move me out the way!" Bellatrix cried. Elisa frowned.

"Why?"

"The death spell!" The girl's mouth curved downwards sorrowfully.

"Yes, it'll kill you I'm afraid. I'm not supposed to interfere with time."

"But I promised!" Bellatrix screamed.

"And for that I thank you," Elisa said calmly. "You've helped me win a bet." Bellatrix felt the world crumbling beneath her feet.

"This was just a bet?" Elisa shrugged.

"Well, and a chance for Voldemort to see you for what you really are." She waved brightly at him. "Now you understand better the people you've surrounded yourself with, I hope!" He didn't deign to reply.

"Wait!" Bellatrix cried, as Elisa reached for the watch. "I promised. I promised!"

"I know you did," Elisa said softly. She blinked, as if an idea had just occurred to her, and tiptoed over to Bellatrix. "Let me tell you a secret!" She reached up and whispered into the older woman's ear. Bellatrix's face paled with shock.

"It's not possible!"

"But true!" Elisa affirmed. Bellatrix risked a glance at Voldemort who was staring at her intently.

"What did she say?" he demanded. Bellatrix's lips curved upwards.

"You're going to die," she laughed. The mad laughter crackled around the silent hall and-

**Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: for the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.**


End file.
